This was the original Seminole Heights blog with commentary about life in and around the urban neighborhood of Seminole Heights in Tampa, Florida. Musings about other topics as my mood permits. The blog is essentially inactive since I moved to Lutz. Go to The Official Unofficial Seminole Heights Blog - www.seminoleheightsblog.com for active content.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

This past week I have been blogging from Utah, while attending a conference at Park City there on Shaken Baby Syndrome. I came home last night at 11:30 p.m. I had to call the police about a transgender prostitute at Louisiana and Nebraska. - (tall, skimpy white top and black/white striped shorts)

I have photos and will post them via Yahoo/Flickr. Some I still need to take off the camera. Those still on the camera include snow photos, as it snowed Saturday. (I have not been in snow since grade 5, when we visited Mt. Diablo Psrk in California). I have never driven in snow. (Tip - clean off the snow before you open your trunk else you end up with a trunk full of snow as it slides in the gap)

I have not flown in a plane after 9-11.

I flew on Southwest. Getting through security was been an interesting experience. I felt like I was in some sort of bad science fiction movie. Loudspeakers telling us to be on the lookout for suspicious behavior. I had to show my boarding pass 3 times and driver license twice to get to my gate. I went through a puffing machine, a metal detector, had to take my shoes off, empty my pockets and put everything on a conveyor belt. I had to take my laptop out of its case. No fluids in my carryone bags. Fortunately there were not many people there so I zipped through. The decor is the shiny chrome, black and white colors and marble so it adds to the science fiction effect.

I used to enjoy as a way to pass some time by taking a quck drive over to the airport, parking at the top level of the garage, look out over the airfield, then walking around the airport, and riding the shuttles over to the airside. I love flying and being around airports. I have been flying since I was a gleam in my dad's eye. Damn the terrorists for the little pleasures they took away from us.

We stopped at Las Vegas to change planes. Slot machines all over the place. What was most interesting, just after coming from Tampa, was the cigarette odor. There where little smoking holding pens (with their on slot machines) that opened up in the rest of the airport, so the smoked wafted out.

We arrive in Salt Lake City. I was spoiled from the Tampa Airport because I had to do alot of walking to get from the plane to our rental car.

The drive to Park City was easy. Simple drive on Interstate 80 all the way up to Utah 224. Stop at Walmart to replace my fluids then off to the Grand Summit Hotel at the Canyons Resort. Nice place. Went into to Park City and its historic Main Street (described online somewhere as a copy of Aspen - shopping and dining but not much real history)

1 comment:

Flying on the airlines certainly isn't what it used to be. It used to be quite the experience, something special. It was great when you could still meet loved ones as soon as they exited the plane. Sometimes that smile and hug made even the worst flight all worth while. It still does I guess, but the magic is gone. The plane I fly for work takes two to three days to cross the US, and I'd still prefer that to airline travel. I'm still waiting for the day I can buy my own plane and forgo the airlines altogether. :-) No lotto winner this time, so I guess I have to wait at least another week. Welcome home.

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Creative Loafing's 2006 Best of the Bay - Best Local Blog - Runner Up and "One of the best civic-oriented chronicles in the Bay Area and a must-read for those in Central Tampa" Wayne Garcia - Political Editor, Creative Loafing (2005)

Selected by the TBT* as one of the six must read blogs of Tampa Bay area (2005)